Deathbed (Dovetail Cove, 1971) --by Jason McIntyre

Fiction / Noir  

83 pages / 1407 KB

5 Stars

I grew up in Portland, Oregon and I admit, McIntyre's creation of Dovetail Cove is so real, I looked it up on the map. It isn't there. I knew it wasn't, but I had to double check.

This series of books is not linear. One may enter at any place, and read in any order, thanks to the sneakiness and deviousness of the author. The saga 'starts' here, but it really doesn't make a difference. Each novel/novella is a stand alone, and each takes place in a different year.

Farrah is a young girl growing up with her father. Her mother is on the mainland, and Farrah really doesn't understand why just that she's not home. Farrah's Gran is dying, and Farrah likes to find stories to bring Gran. She buys a 'mystery box' from a woman at the town market, and discovers a dark story for Gran—and herself.

These books are not bedtime stories for your young children, unless you feed them a steady diet of Twilight Zone re-runs. But they are marvelous stories, well written and great fun, in a dark sort of way.